 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Teenage bomber kills 22 Jirga elders in Bajaur |
|
|
|
Friday, November 07, 2008
19 militants die in air strikes
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Twenty-two tribal elders were killed and 50 others injured in a suicide attack on an anti-Taliban tribal Jirga in Salarzai area of militancy-hit Bajaur tribal region on Thursday.
A purported militant outfit, Karwan-e-Niamatullah, a splinter group of Baitullah Mehsud-led banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operating in Salarzai Tehsil, has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Military officials said 19 militants were later killed when Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter jets and military gunship choppers heavily bombed militant hideouts in various parts of Mamond Tehsil. One of the Jirga members, Malik Abdul Nasir, told The News from Salarzai by telephone that a young boy of 15-20 years entered the Jirga and blew himself up in the middle of the elders.
The elders, he said, were holding a meeting at an open place at Barsadeen village, 25 kilometres north of Khar, headquarters of Bajaur.“A young boy who had just disembarked from a car came towards the Jirga, sat down near Haji Fazal Karim and then blew himself up,” the tribal elder said.
Malik Nasir, whose father and a tribal elder Malik Mohammad Ayaz died in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast last year at Mulla Said Banda in Salarzai Tehsil along with journalist Dr Noor Hakim Khan and tehsildar Wisal Mohammad Khan, said nine tribal chieftains died on the spot and over 60 others sustained serious injuries.
The injured were taken to the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Khar while some of them were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Timergara, Dir Lower district. Tribal sources said nine elders died on the spot while 11 others succumbed to injuries at the Khar hospital and two at Timergara hospital.
Doctors at the Agency Headquarters Hospital in Khar said they had received around 45 blast victims, of whom 15 were in a critical condition. Some of the critically injured were later sent to Peshawar for treatment. The tribesmen complained that most of the people died due to lack of adequate health facilities at the main public sector hospital in Khar.
“There are only two surgical specialists in the entire Bajaur region and both of them were not present in the town when the injured were brought to the hospital. The two doctors arrived after an hour when most of the tribal elders brought in serious condition had succumbed to injuries,” said a senior tribal journalist, Hasbanullah Khan, based in Khar.
The dead included noted tribal chieftains and members of Salarzai tribal Lashkar. Besides, a prominent tribal elder and leader of Salarzai tribal Lashkar, Haji Fazal Karim Baro, also died in the attack.
An aged but ever-active Haji Fazal Karim, who was a retired major of Bajaur Levies, had played a leading role in raising a tribal Lashkar against tribal and foreign militants hiding in his native Salarzai Tehsil when the government launched a massive military operation against them in August last.
Officials said the head of suicide bomber had been recovered and brought to Khar hospital. They said it seems that the suicide bomber was an Uzbek national.Meanwhile, Political Agent of Bajaur Agency Shafeerullah Khan announced Rs50,000 cash for each of the injured.
A caller who introduced himself as Abdur Rehman, a spokesman for Karwan-e-Niamatullah militant group, called The News and claimed responsibility for the attack.The tribal elders who were attacked, he said, were acting on the government directives and were involved in destroying houses of Taliban leaders in Salarzai.
The military officials said warplanes and gunship choppers bombarded militant positions in Mamond, Kotkai and Darra areas of the troubled tribal region, killing 19 militants.They said planes also targeted the house of Faqir Mohammad at Chopatra village in Mamond but there were no details about any casualty.
Niamatullah, who is considered a leader of this splinter group, was earlier selling socks in Rawalpindi and returned to Bajaur in 2004 to join Maulvi Faqir Mohammad-led tribal militants.He then occupied a mosque in his native Salarzai area and turned it into a Madrassa and started imparting religious education through other people, as he himself didn’t have any religious knowledge.
Very soon Niamatullah became a dominant figure as he succeeded in getting support of foreign militants, particularly Arabs living in Mulla Said Banda and Darra areas.He developed differences with the TTP leader in Bajaur, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, and was expelled from the mainstream militant group.
Faqir had once even declared him as ringleader of dacoits.However, two other militant commanders, having close ties with Arabs, Wali Rahman, leader of Jaishul Islami, also a splinter group of banned TTP, and an Afghan militant commander Qari Ziaur Rehman, welcomed Niamatullah in their ranks and warned Faqir Mohammad not to move against him.
He recently occupied three government primary schools in Salarzai and turned them into Islamic courts.Tribal sources said the Salarzai tribal elders had convened a Jirga at Barsadeen area of Salarzai Tehsil to consider launching another armed action against militants still hiding in Mulla Said Darra and Banda areas near the border with Afghanistan’s troubled Kunar province.
The same tribal Lashkar had made an attempt to demolish houses of militant commanders, including Niamatullah, leader of a militant group, Karwan-e-Niamatullah, but suffered losses when they came under attack from militants.
Terming the Thursday suicide attack on Jirga a serious setback to efforts of tribal Lashkar, the tribal sources said it would demoralise tribal elders in rest of the violence-hit region to raise Lashkars and take action against militants.
APP adds: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani have strongly condemned the suicide bomb blast at a jirga in Bajaur Agency that claimed innocent lives.
The president and the prime minister in their separate messages denounced the terrorist act and said that terrorism and extremism would be eradicated from the country at all costs. They expressed deep sorrow and grief over the loss of lives and injuries caused by the blast and said the perpetrators of such heinous crime would not be spared.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
Three killed as Sh Rashid escapes attempt on life
By Shakeel Anjum
RAWALPINDI: Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief and a candidate for NA-55 (Rawalpindi) by-election Sheikh Rashid Ahmad was wounded, while three people — a guard and two party workers — were killed when four gunmen more |
|
|
12 soldiers killed in South Waziristan
ISLAMABAD: Twelve soldiers embraced martyrdom while two others were injured in a clash with militants during the ongoing operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan Agency (SWA), the ISPR said on Monday.
S more |
|
|
Plan to attack five-star hotel foiled
By our correspondent
LAHORE: The CIA police here on Monday claimed to have foiled an attack on Americans staying at a five-star hotel and arrested six terrorists, including a suicide bomber.
Addressing a press conference, SS more |
|
|
Govt taking court for a ride
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: She fought her case in the media. She won her battle in the judicial forum too. But still the government is bent on making an example out of her for refusing to follow the illegal dictates of her min more |
|
|
Pakistan against arms race: Gilani
By Azeem Samar
KARACHI: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said Pakistan does not want to be engaged in an arms race with any country.
Speaking as chief guest at the induction ceremony of second Chinese-m more |
|
|
|
Punjab-Sindh water row Centre’s intervention sought
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Tension between Punjab and Sindh over opening of the Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Punjnad link canals has touched a new high as the former has sought the Centre’s intervention.
The Punjab has sai more |
|
|
|
French, Dutch fight over giving LNG to Pakistan
By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and his team is all set to thwart the attempt of an unscrupulous combine of oil industry heavyweights and some functionaries of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Re more |
|
|
|
Nine killed as no let-up in rains
By Nisar Mahmood
PESHAWAR: Nine people were killed and scores of others injured as heavy rains and snowfall lashed various parts of the country for the fourth consecutive day on Monday.
Reports from the Shangla district more |
|
|
|
Malik orders NUML closure as protest enters 5ht day
ISLAMABAD: The protest of the students of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) against thrashing of Professor Malik Tahir by Registrar Brigadier (R) Obaidullah Ranjha entered its fifth consecutive more |
|
|
|
Malik insists no Blackwater in Pakistan
By Muhammad Anis
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik while responding to an accusation from a PML-N parliamentarian told the National Assembly that Blackwater was not providing security to the president and the prime mini more |
|
|
|
FBR gets list of properties rented out to foreigners
By Hanif Khalid
ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received list of properties from Foreign Office, which were in use of foreigners in Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore, but these were not shown in annual tax more |
|
|
|
Repealing of 17th Amendment
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has begun efforts to create consensus on repealing the 17th Amendment before presidential address to the joint sitting of the parliament.
The prime minis more |
|
|
|
Three suspects held in Mohmand
By our correspondent
GHALLANAI: The security forces arrested three suspected persons during search operation in Safi subdivision of Mohmand Agency, official sources said Monday. The sources said the security forces carried out sear more |
|
|
|
No presence of Blackwater, DynCorp in Pakistan, NA body told
ISLAMABAD: Secretary Interior Qamar Zaman again negated on Monday the presence of Blackwater, DynCorp or any other foreign security agency in the country. “Neither the Blackwater and the DynCorp nor any other s more |
|
|
|
Govt urged to take up water issue with India
By Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat while urging the government to take up the issue of ‘water terrorism’ with New Delhi, has question more |
|
|
|
Avalanche kills 17 Indian soldiers in held Kashmir
HELD SRINAGAR: Seventeen Indian soldiers were killed on Monday in an avalanche that slammed into a group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp in Kashmir, the army said on Monday.
more |
|
|
|
Taliban defiant as Afghans flee ahead of assault
KANDAHAR: The Nato commanders urged the Taliban to surrender as troops dug in on Monday for a major assault on their key stronghold in southern Afghanistan, sending thousands of residents fleeing.
The Ta more |
|
|
|
Plea to freeze foreign accounts
By our correspondent
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered the federal government to submit a reply within four weeks on a petition seeking freezing of accounts in foreign banks and recovery of illegal assets accumu more |
|
|
|
Attack on Sh Rashid
RAWALPINDI: The PML-N candidate for by-polls from NA-55, Malik Shakil Awan, has announced suspension of electioneering for a day to mourn the death of those killed in the attack on the office of his rival, Shei more |
|
|
|
Indian forces to halt Kashmir rally outside UN office
HELD SRINAGAR: The held Kashmir authorities deployed thousands of police and troops on Monday to prevent a protest outside the UN office here over the recent killing of two teenage boys by Indian security force more |
|
|
|
briefs...
20 die in Afghan floods, avalanches
KANDAHAR: Twenty people have died in floods and avalanches triggered by some of the heaviest rain and snow in Afghanistan for 50 years, an official said on Monday. At more |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
